26 June 2005
panama....wow
After planning on spending around 5 days in panama... and loving it while it turned into about 10... i've got some fun stories. After finishing my diving cours i spent another 2 days on Bocas Del Toro. of the 5 nights i spent there someone made a family style meal 4 of them. The last meal was just great. The organizer of the meal went out the day before, found a pig, bought it, fed it some ice cream, and then had it butchered. We marinated the hog all night with fruits and garlic and then cooked it in a home made oven for ~6 hours. the meal, when it was all said and done, was just amazing. The food was the highlight of bocas, but after bocas is when panama went from really cool to something far above that.
I grabbed a water taxi to a near by island to go spend 3 days with Polo. Polo is this crazy hermit guy i heard about while up in northern costa rica. He's lived on the same beach property for 41 yrs, and has only allowed guest to wander out for the last ten. THe island he lives on is call basimentos. THis place has no roads at all. the one small village does have an extra wide sidewalk through town but that's really it. To get to polo's beach i had to hike it from beach to beach around the island for about 2 hours. It was absolutely raining like a monsoon for 1 1/2 of those hours. but the hike was so great. I was the only one out and right when i reach polo's shack the sun came out and i was able to start drying out all my gear. Polo's place is a simple shack about 20 meters off the beach. He's seriously not all there. He's nuts... but nice, and a really good cook. I chilled out with him for 2 nights. The highlight of chilling with polo was his food, the first day i had iguana. Iguana doesn't taste like chicken... but it doesn't taste so bad either. The skin was a little weird but i wasn't going to turn anything down. Along with his cooking skills i found out that mixing coconut water and rum is just delicious. Ever hour i was getting another coconut from the palm, wacking that thing open, and mixing me a drink.
Then from polo's place i headed back to the small village on basimentos and hung out there for 4 days. The beaches on this island are amazing. There huge and nobody is there. We're able to spread out enough to where it feels like we're the only ones on the beach. I was in heaven. But, after spending my days there it was time to move on.
I'm in san jose right now at costa rica backpackers. I'm going to catch an early bus tomorrow back up to nicaragua and my favorite island of them all... ometepe. I hope to find a family to stay with while i work on a farm there. Haven't talked to anyone about this in about 3 weeks but i'm confident everything will work out. In fact, it always works out when you really don't have a plan. so that's where i'm at.
love to all
I grabbed a water taxi to a near by island to go spend 3 days with Polo. Polo is this crazy hermit guy i heard about while up in northern costa rica. He's lived on the same beach property for 41 yrs, and has only allowed guest to wander out for the last ten. THe island he lives on is call basimentos. THis place has no roads at all. the one small village does have an extra wide sidewalk through town but that's really it. To get to polo's beach i had to hike it from beach to beach around the island for about 2 hours. It was absolutely raining like a monsoon for 1 1/2 of those hours. but the hike was so great. I was the only one out and right when i reach polo's shack the sun came out and i was able to start drying out all my gear. Polo's place is a simple shack about 20 meters off the beach. He's seriously not all there. He's nuts... but nice, and a really good cook. I chilled out with him for 2 nights. The highlight of chilling with polo was his food, the first day i had iguana. Iguana doesn't taste like chicken... but it doesn't taste so bad either. The skin was a little weird but i wasn't going to turn anything down. Along with his cooking skills i found out that mixing coconut water and rum is just delicious. Ever hour i was getting another coconut from the palm, wacking that thing open, and mixing me a drink.
Then from polo's place i headed back to the small village on basimentos and hung out there for 4 days. The beaches on this island are amazing. There huge and nobody is there. We're able to spread out enough to where it feels like we're the only ones on the beach. I was in heaven. But, after spending my days there it was time to move on.
I'm in san jose right now at costa rica backpackers. I'm going to catch an early bus tomorrow back up to nicaragua and my favorite island of them all... ometepe. I hope to find a family to stay with while i work on a farm there. Haven't talked to anyone about this in about 3 weeks but i'm confident everything will work out. In fact, it always works out when you really don't have a plan. so that's where i'm at.
love to all
18 June 2005
He´s a diver
That´s right kids, after three days of studying and swimming with a big tank on my back i´ve officially graduated as an open water diver. As part of the course we got to do four open water dives in different locations. The highlight of this whole ordeal was diving around a sunken boat. I wasn´t allowed to go in but just checking it out was really cool. this place ranks up there as one of the highlihts even without the diving experiences though.
I´m staying at the hostel Monte Teitu. Two of the three nights i´ve been here someone volunteered to head an absolutely amazing meal. The first night an israeli guy spent the entire evening, with the help of about 6 volunteers, creating one of the best meals i´ve ever had. Home made everything, four courses, and he managed to feed over 30 people with leftovers. WOW. Then last night another dude, inspired by Nir (the israeli), made another meal for around 15 of us. Also really amazing. This guy has hopes of opening a restaurant somewhere on the island. Then, on top of all this, the hostel has a bar in the back with 50 cent beers during happy hour/$1 normally. It should go without saying that i´m enjoying Bocas Del Toro. Tomorrow i think i´m going to pack up though and see what the surrounding islands have to offer. Apparently one of the survivor seasons was filmed on one of them. should be fun.
smiles
I´m staying at the hostel Monte Teitu. Two of the three nights i´ve been here someone volunteered to head an absolutely amazing meal. The first night an israeli guy spent the entire evening, with the help of about 6 volunteers, creating one of the best meals i´ve ever had. Home made everything, four courses, and he managed to feed over 30 people with leftovers. WOW. Then last night another dude, inspired by Nir (the israeli), made another meal for around 15 of us. Also really amazing. This guy has hopes of opening a restaurant somewhere on the island. Then, on top of all this, the hostel has a bar in the back with 50 cent beers during happy hour/$1 normally. It should go without saying that i´m enjoying Bocas Del Toro. Tomorrow i think i´m going to pack up though and see what the surrounding islands have to offer. Apparently one of the survivor seasons was filmed on one of them. should be fun.
smiles
14 June 2005
yup....
so, today is a tuesday. I'm in Puerto Viejo on the Carribean side near panama. We spent the last 10 days in Playa Brasilito near Tamarindo (on the pacific side), from there we bussed on south to Playa Samara, then cruised west thr0ugh san jose and onward to Cahuita just north of Puerto Viejo.
All those places were nice.
But Puerto Viejo, where we are now, at the hostel "Rockin J's" has been the highlight since the last post. The Caribean is prooving to be more enjoyable all around then the pacific side. Everything is more relaxed. Our hostel is really pretty sweet too. I'm sleeping in a hammock for $5 a night. Thing is, the hammocks are really comfortable and there's about 50 of em. There's also places to camp or rent rooms. There's even a honeymooning couple paying $60 a night for a tree house room. So there's a lot of cool people to hang out with and meet and the beach is cool as well. It's all coral on this beach but there are little pools about the size of a large hot tube where there isn't any coral. So you can walk on top of the reef (which is mostly above the water) until you find a pool and just jump in a chill there for a bit.
Betsy leaves tomorrow. So tomorrow, or the next day, I'll head a short 20 km south to Panama. In Panama i plan to learn how to scuba dive. There are 3 day courses to get your diving certificate... and i'm in. I'll probably be about a week in panama. And then my tentative plan is to get myself back up into Nicaragua to volunteer on a permaculture farm owned by a guy i met while i was on ometepe. His farm is also on ometepe near the farm i stayed at the first time. It's just down the fill from where we hiked up to the crater lake and should be pretty amazing. I plan to volunteer there for at least two weeks... but if i end up really enjoying the work and surroundings, i may stay on until i fly home.
The people have all been really helpful. Recently we've been running into other travelors we had met at the beginning of our trip. It's like having little reunions with people you barely know every once in a while just so you can pretend to have a different familiar face to see.
J - tell me about hungary. That's where you are, right?
OUT
All those places were nice.
But Puerto Viejo, where we are now, at the hostel "Rockin J's" has been the highlight since the last post. The Caribean is prooving to be more enjoyable all around then the pacific side. Everything is more relaxed. Our hostel is really pretty sweet too. I'm sleeping in a hammock for $5 a night. Thing is, the hammocks are really comfortable and there's about 50 of em. There's also places to camp or rent rooms. There's even a honeymooning couple paying $60 a night for a tree house room. So there's a lot of cool people to hang out with and meet and the beach is cool as well. It's all coral on this beach but there are little pools about the size of a large hot tube where there isn't any coral. So you can walk on top of the reef (which is mostly above the water) until you find a pool and just jump in a chill there for a bit.
Betsy leaves tomorrow. So tomorrow, or the next day, I'll head a short 20 km south to Panama. In Panama i plan to learn how to scuba dive. There are 3 day courses to get your diving certificate... and i'm in. I'll probably be about a week in panama. And then my tentative plan is to get myself back up into Nicaragua to volunteer on a permaculture farm owned by a guy i met while i was on ometepe. His farm is also on ometepe near the farm i stayed at the first time. It's just down the fill from where we hiked up to the crater lake and should be pretty amazing. I plan to volunteer there for at least two weeks... but if i end up really enjoying the work and surroundings, i may stay on until i fly home.
The people have all been really helpful. Recently we've been running into other travelors we had met at the beginning of our trip. It's like having little reunions with people you barely know every once in a while just so you can pretend to have a different familiar face to see.
J - tell me about hungary. That's where you are, right?
OUT
04 June 2005
Back in Costa Rica
After spending a little more than a week in nicaragua we are now back in the costa rica. Our traveling buddy, Betsy II (also from madison), left us yesturday for home and so Betsy I and i are once again a pair of travelors.
We spent two nights in San Jose at the Hostel Pangea. Pangea was a nice place but San Jose in general didn´t seem to have a whole lot to do or feel all that safe. Our second night there we made it over to the casino at the radisson where we managed to get a free buffet and drinks all nigh while only spending about $2-3 a peice on the slots. from there we caught a bus up to Tamarindo on the NW cost and i´m not all that sure where we´ll be heading next. i´m fairly certain that the next few days will be full of me sitting on the beach with a book. Maybe some snorkeling.
Oh, and mike, the walk out into the lake at the top of the volcano was super muddy. every step i would sink into the mud up to my calf, and rondom spots would let me sink all the way up to my thigh in mud. But getting out into the lake was well worth the mud. Luckily there were no leaches.
love
We spent two nights in San Jose at the Hostel Pangea. Pangea was a nice place but San Jose in general didn´t seem to have a whole lot to do or feel all that safe. Our second night there we made it over to the casino at the radisson where we managed to get a free buffet and drinks all nigh while only spending about $2-3 a peice on the slots. from there we caught a bus up to Tamarindo on the NW cost and i´m not all that sure where we´ll be heading next. i´m fairly certain that the next few days will be full of me sitting on the beach with a book. Maybe some snorkeling.
Oh, and mike, the walk out into the lake at the top of the volcano was super muddy. every step i would sink into the mud up to my calf, and rondom spots would let me sink all the way up to my thigh in mud. But getting out into the lake was well worth the mud. Luckily there were no leaches.
love
